Horseback Riding

By: Sofa Jaramillo

Places To Horseback Ride

There are many places to ride horses but the one I recommend you is in la pradera. In la pradera there are four courts, one is covered for jumping but you could also do dressage. That court is the one that most people like to do so it is very crowded. The second court is a circular one that its used for bolting, but sometimes they teach little kids to learn to ride there. The last courts is uncovered and people use it to do dressage and jumping.
This is in la Pradera where the horses are.

This looks like a cool place to ride.

Another place I recommend you is in el Guaymaral, there are three courts. Two are covered and the last one is not. One court thats covered is for jumping and the other one is to do dressage. The last court that I saw is for jumping and its the one that I like the most because it is uncovered. The last court I recommend you to go is in el Rancho. In el Rancho there are ve courts, and all of them are very big. The four are, covered and are used to do jumping and dressage, and the last one is uncovered and it is also used to do bolting and dressage.

A good place to ride should have the three important activities which are jumping, dressage and bolting. Also there should be teachers that know a lot about at least one of these exercises on horseback riding. For example in la pradera there is three activities and good teachers that teach it. Omar is the bolting teacher and the conductor of the bolting team, he uses the horses Jimmy and Paco which are the biggest school horses that la pradera has.
Juan Banensuela is my teacher and I think he is the best because he is a champion and knows a lot of good strategies and exercises. Also he is very strict about dressage and one thing that he tells me, that I really like is that, jumping is dressage with obstacles, and he teached me all the things that I am writing on this informational book, when you are with him or at the level he teach you normally start buying your horse.

For experts or bigger kids there is a teacher called Juan Benites which teaches very advanced kids that jump 1,50 meters or more. All of his students have a horse.

Galloping
When I started to learn galloping I just thought that to make your horse gallop you should sit down kick and wait until the horse understands that you are asking him to gallop. But now I realize that you don't even have to kick to make your horse gallop.

A rider that is in the right position doing the right things to gallop.

To make your horse gallop you rst short the trot, sit down, press with both legs but the inner leg should go up a little bit and press and your outer leg should stay where it is and press. Last you should turn the horse a little bit to the side where you are going and the horse should gallop.This look easy to do but is takes practice.

This man is doing a very bad job because he is standing up and leaning forward, he is doing the jumping position not even well done.

To know when your horse is galloping right you look at the start of the leg of the horse and the inner leg should move faster than the outer leg. If the outer leg is going faster than the inner leg you should put your horse to trot and try again. When you gallop you should press with your legs, and sit down and it will be more comfortable.
As you can see this horse is sweeting well that is because he is tired and he should rest.

You know when your horse is tired because he is sweating and he doesn't want to speed up. You can't only gallop all your class because your horse will start stopping and can get sick.

Jumping
There are many types of jumps. For example the parallel. The parallel is more than one (depending on how tall is the jump) bars on the same row. Another jump is la cruceta. That is two bars crossed and the horse should pass in the middle of the bars. The last type of jump that I know is the oxer which is two parallels super close by. The horse should pass both bars in one jump. To jump you dont have to go very fast, in fact, you can jump while you trot.

The parallel is one type of jump.

Oxer
The position before you jump or going to do the jump is, 1. Put your back, back 2. Look far away 3. Press with your legs 4. Move your horse to the middle of the jump 5. Keep your inner and outer hand firm and still on top of the horses neck.

Cruceta

Click here to Watch a Horse Jump a Wall

When you are in the jump, you, 1. Stand up a little bit. 2. Put your body forward. 3. Put your hands on the horses neck. 4. Press with your legs. 5. Still look faraway.

After the jump you 1. Sit down, 2. Sitback 3. Continue

As you can see this boy is exaggerating when he jumps.

In Italy first they discovered to jump you had to lean back. Later they discovered they could lean in front but the exaggerated a lot when they leaned forward. Lastly they invented that you can lean a little bit and go with the horse.

In this moment it would be a good idea to cuddle your horse if he did a good job. When your horse does a very good job in your class the best price for him is to let him rest.

Huaso and Alberto jumping 2.47 meters.

Alberto Larraguibel and his horse Huaso made the record by jumping 2.47 meters. It is said that the first time he tried the horse didn't jump, the second time the horse did jump but with his back leg he knocked down a bar and the third and last time he did it and made the record that has never been beaten since the time he did it. The horse after they beat the record continued but broke all his muscles.

Click here to see the World Record Jump

Equipment
Horseback riding can be fun but it can also be a dangerous sport, but if you use the right equipment you can be protected if something happens. First the helmet that is the rst thing you should put on for safety. The helmet helps because if you fall down of your horse and the horse steps on your head and you don't have a helmet, you would die, and also if you fall on your head and don't have a helmet, you can also die.
The helmet GPA. I recommend you to use it in case you fall.

This man fell of his horse pretty bad and if he wouldn't had a helmet he would of died.

Another very important safety equipment is the vest. The vest covers your chest and your back. It is important because your ribs and your spine are the most important part to be protected and also your head. If you are riding and you fall and the horse steps on your back or on your chest and you don't have a vest, your spine or ribs might break and you won't be able to move specially if your spine breaks.

The vest.

The correct uniform to horseback ride.

The clothes you should use is britches for pants and I use a polo shirt tucked in. Lastly the boots, the socks that you use should be long that covers all the part the boot touches that is so the britches don't get dirty and nothing gets into them.

Buying Your Horse

When you buy your horse it means you are ready. Ready to take a big responsibility because you can't say I want this horse and one month later say that I don't want it, actually to change the horse you would have to move to a higher level and the horse that you have doesn't work for you, so it takes a big responsibility and also you have to be a good horseback rider because when you go to a tournament in another city your parents might not bring your horse so you have to be a good horseback rider so you can use any horse they give you.

This is the horse of my friend and she is a very good rider and she has a big responsibility with this horse. She also test this horse but this isn't a perfect horse but the horse teaches my friend.

To buy your horse you need to test a horse that is on sale and if you like it and it is useful for you, you can buy it. You know when the horse you test is for you because: 1.He should be calm. 2. You should feel comfortable. 3. It is not heavy for you. 4. He doesn't have any problems in his legs or something. 5. You can ask him to transition easily. 6. His galloping is comfortable and it is easy for you to make him gallop. 7. It is useful for your level.

They look like they love their horse.

Sometimes your horse has some of these things, but some horses are missing one or two so you have to practice with them so the horse can do it. I don't think there is a horse that is perfect and has all of these, that you would sit down and the horse would gallop and you didn't do anything and if you had a perfect horse it would be bad, because you wont be a good rider if the horse does everything to you and if something happens you won't be able to ride it out.

This horse or any horse can't be perfect and the horses that have something's to work on are the horses that teach you.

The good horses are very very expensive especially the high jumping horses because they have to be ne. Dressage horses are very expensive too.

Fun Facts About Horses

1. Horses hear 40 times better than humans. 2. Horses see better to the side than in front because of there big forehead Do you know any other fun fact?

Horses ears.

Horses forehead.

Glossary
1. Bolting: Is a class where you work your balance by doing tricks ontop of your horse. This tricks can be made walking, trotting or galloping. 2. Dressage: Where you demonstrate that you can control your horse and that the transitions are made whenever you want and that you do the correct things to make the transition happen. 3. Jumping: It is dressage with obstacles you have to ride through with your horse without knocking any bars to the ground. 4. Oxer: Two parallels close by. The horse should pass both bars in one jump. 5. Parallel: More than one bar on the same row. The bottom bar is so the horse doesn't see if the jump is very tall. 6. Cruceta: Two bars that are crossed. The horse should pass it through the middle. 7. Inner Leg: The leg that points to the inside of the court. 8. Outer Leg: The leg that points to the outside of the court.
Guess which picture goes with each bold word! There are two words without picture.

Answer Dressage Jumping Bolting Oxer Parallel Cruceta Inner leg

These are the words without picture.

Outer leg

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